She’s dreaming. It’s a dream dating back to when she was very young while playing in the villa’s garden.
Just a bit further away was Mother and Father drinking tea, as they watched over Serena and the siblings play.
Serena, birthed by two excellent parents with superior abilities, had too low of a talent. Whether it be in swordsmans.h.i.+p or magic. Even in school she studies very hard but still comes out as average. On the other hand, her younger brother is superior.
Spiteful rumors from people spread, saying the two superior parent’s inferior genetics were pa.s.sed onto the older sister, while the superior genetics were pa.s.sed onto the younger brother.
『I got you, Nee-chan! 』
『Gofuu……』
The younger brother tackled the older sister in the pit of her stomach. All the air gushed forth from Serena’s lungs as she gave away an odd shriek.
『U, ugu, guu……..Kyo, Kyosu……ke……』
『Ah, sorry』
To Serena who held her stomach while in pain, the younger brother Kyosuke smiled wryly and extended his hands.
『Nee-chan’s the same as always. How are you going to protect the country like that』
『T, there’s no shame……』
『Well whatever. I’ll be the one to protect this country and Nee-chan!』
Kyosuke said so while smiling and exposing his white teeth.
To the miserable older sister, she, in fact, happily accepted what the younger brother declared. Grabbing Kyosuke’s hand, she slowly stood up which marked the end of Serena’s dream. During the slumber, she felt her shoulder shaking, and gradually came back.
Serena woke up
“Ah, oi. You finally woke up!”
“Really”
“Just like a human…..”
She heard voices. The surrounding is pretty noisy. Seems she must have been carried into a human settlement. Safe.
She didn’t know of any human settlements outside the walls but this is a favorable situation as there’s no danger being for the time. Serena rubbed her eyes while opening her eyelids.
Suddenly, in front of her were faces, faces and more faces.
Ogres, Orcs, Goblins, Gargoyle, Gryphon, Harpy, Lamia, and various other monsters. She thought there were “humans” here but instead it wasn’t what she expected.
“U, U-n……”
With an overload of information flooding her, to naturally protect herself, the girl Serena once again fainted.
“I see, Goubayas.h.i.+ ….”
Kyosuke finished his report in the strategy room as Ryuzaki smiled.
“If he believe in us enough to follow us, we can’t just deny him any hospitality.”
According to the conversation Ok.u.ma and Zeku had, Zeku met Goubayas.h.i.+ a little to the east from the rocky area and as a result of losing in a fist fight, joined together with him. In accordance to Ogres society, which relies on the muscles, those who lost as a result of a fist fight must serve the winner.
And with that, Goubayas.h.i.+ entrusted Zeku with this girl. She seemed to have been found collapsed in the wastelands. Since Goubayas.h.i.+’s group were hasty with their plans, they left Zeku with the girl and directions to head southeast.
Ok.u.ma and Zeku are both waiting for the girl’s eyes to open.
“Other reports include weapons from the heavy cruiser, and the Wilderness Worm……”
Ryuzaki looked at the report while scratching his head. Kyosuke just nods.
“The Wilderness Worm was quite a problem. It’s very difficult when trying to damage the exterior. But in our case, well it turned out alright but…..”
Truth is, that type of monster was an unexpected encounter outside of the base. From here onward, it might be a cause of concerns for the future exterior exploration teams. They can’t confine themselves in the base too, since the Wilderness Worm can dig through the grounds. Who knows when it could have reached the underground labyrinth.
“Because of that the weapons…..or what I like to call it, but they’re 70 years old rifles and will probably have problems dealing damage”
“There’s also this Ryuzaki, here. It’s the main reason we went, the s.h.i.+p’s log”
“Aah, thanks. When things settle down I’ll read it. There’s too many things going on right now”
It’s probably not just because of the girl and the Wilderness Worm as Kyosuke thought to himself.
Kyosuke knew that lately Ryuzaki has been troubled over the formation of the labyrinth exploration party these past few days. There’s the issues of the team count, with scarce amount of students that has recovery abilities, and with balancing the team by placing those close to each other in the same group by all means. In addition, there’s also Kogane and which group to place him in.
If Akira agreed, it’d be the best idea to place Kogane in their group.
As of now, their group consisted of Kyosuke, Rin and Akira. So to speak, 〝Team Useless〟.
If Kogane were to join their group, he would increase the battle balance, he’s able to use recovery magic, they can guarantee his whereabouts and overall would be a good idea.
But Akira will probably not accept this.
Lately, there the public a.s.sumption that there’s no danger outside of the labyrinth, so many figured that the 〝Team Useless〟 would not necessarily need the extra strength to explore the heavy cruiser. But just for insurance, Tsurugi and Ok.u.ma came along yet there’s still no one who can use any recovery ability. But they judged it to be fine without that person.
And then the Wilderness Worm appeared. From now on, if they were to send students to the heavy cruiser, they should not hide its existence any longer.
“I’m really dissatisfied about how you guys are being called as 〝Team Useless〟 however…”
Ryuzaki is talking about the “Full Cross”(Written as Black Knight). But Kyosuke shrugged.
“Me too. But Akira still wants to conceal it and would absolutely be unreasonable for it to come out. Well, if we were to split apart, we’d truly become useless for sure….”
“Well, I’ll be the one forming the party composition. You’ve been paying more attention to things I’ve missed, I’ve also received the reports.”
Kyosuke thought he made a somewhat overestimation of him. Did Kyosuke really notice what he couldn’t?
“First of all, about the weapons from the cruiser. I’ll talk with Kuremori about it tomorrow”
“Please, cla.s.s rep. By the way….”
As Kyosuke’s eyes(none) turned towards the corner of the room. Ryuzaki also followed his sight and expressed a wry smile.
Like being displayed in a British Museum, there lay a lavish gold coffin. Even now, snores could be heard coming from it.
“Aah, its fine. I just woke it up awhile ago. And then received it’s powers for abit”
“Did ya kick it hard?”
“Without even waking that guy, Harao, up.”
He was always the “my pace” kind of guy back then too. When he came to this side, he still had no spurs.
Kyosuke originally had no relations.h.i.+p with him, but he became a similar undead like Kyosuke and frankly, Kyosuke became a little envious of his abilities.
“Harao, is no one upset with this guy’s treatment?”
“Wellll I mean. There’s the incidient with Kogane, along with Kagoi’s group trying to drag the coffin along. However, being unpleased by it, they were cursed”
“The Pharos’s(Harao) curse eh. But it seems like you’re not afflicted?”
“Nahh, I’m cursed relatively at a frequency….And just abit more before.”
“Ah, I see….”
Seems like the Demon King cla.s.s rep’s anxiety is never-ending. Kyosuke honestly pitied him.
And after having light chat with Ryuzaki, Kyosuke left the room. Rin and Akira should probably be at the dining hall right?
It’s almost time for that girl to wake up as well right? And so Kyosuke began walking towards the dining hall.
“I am Sak.u.ma Sachiko. You are?”
“Umm, Serena…..desu”
As Kyosuke arrived at the dining hall, Sak.u.ma began asking questions to the girl.
Besides Sak.u.ma talking with the girl, with the exception of Asuka sitting nearby, the rest of the students are watching a short distance away. Quite possibly since those two are the closest to being human, she would not be so nervous to the trial. It’ll also be good if Kogane was around but as Kyosuke thought, his figure is nowhere to be seen.
As soon as Kyosuke stepped foot into the dining hall, a portion of the student’s eye’s were like needle as they faced him.
Since the case back then, the cla.s.s mostly directed their hate towards Kogane and his former clique, Was.h.i.+o and gang. These past few days, truthfully, they wouldn’t even lose to Kyosuke’s group. Since Ryuzaki began putting more emphasis on division of roles based on everyone’s abilities there remained Kyosuke’s group 〝Useless〟 who stuck out.
So far, since the cla.s.smates were a.s.signed in teams with close friends, they’ve been doing a lot and not paying much attention to his group. However, with the new division of roles, the close friends’ teams were separated; Besides, even with being organized into trios with some close friends, hate towards his group began to increase.
Honestly at this point, aside from Akira, Rin had originally been a useless as well but with her nature and being in our team, the so called order became reversed. Furthermore, if they were to be separated, just like Ryuzaki mentioned, they’ll really be useless to a team. But it’s pointless speaking about that.
While being a little comforted from the bad experience, and stepping into the dining hall, Kyosuke walked towards his friends.
“Oh, Yaahoo. Utsurogi-kun”
“That’s unexpectedly fast, Kyosuke”
Rin and Akira, not paying attention to the surrounding, turned towards him.
“How is it? That human girl”
“She’s called Serena-chan. Said she’s born from the far east kingdom and said she’s a knight apprentice and that’s about it?”
Kyosuke thought, I see, while nodding. His eyes drifted towards the girl called Serena. The Serena herself is intermittently looking over here.
Well, even though he say that, its cause everyone else is over here. To put it bluntly, she’s surrounded by monsters so its understandable that her emotions are unsettled.
From Akira and Rin talks, it became that Sak.u.ma is getting information from the girl Serena.
Serena’s country, in order to defend itself against the monsters from the west, built giant walls and thus established itself as nonaggressive. However, recently the ban has been lifted from going out the wall, so a party was formed to investigate the surrounding. And Serena inserted herself into that group.
However, she alone survived as the rest of her party experienced annihilation. The thing that attacked her party was a black armored, red winged demon. It was covered in full plate, having wings of flames, and it nimbly soar the skies.
When she described what happened, the dining room became full of commotion.
Black armor. Red wing. It’s without a doubt the thing that defeated the Wight King, the unmistakable black night.
“Utsurogi-kun….”
Rin meekly voiced. Kyosuke nodded.
That black knight is him. And though they were out, they would never attack humans.
And yet the words that were spoken here, in regards to them, was bad news to hear.
“It’s a good thing we concealed the ident.i.ty of Full Cross”
As Akira spoke coldly. But Kyosuke couldn’t do anything except nod.
Sak.u.ma and Asuka knew the ident.i.ty of the Black Knight. Sak.u.ma stiffened for a moment, and in order to control the commotion in the dining hall, tried to continue in asking questions. She probably wanted to ask if that the red-winged demon and the black knight were not the same and if she’s mistaken. But understanding that it was foolish to think of that for a moment, her lips hesitated for a moment.
Subst.i.tuting for Sak.u.ma, Asuka continued with the investigation of Serena. Nonetheless, she did so while fiddling with her nails and with her usual behavior.
“So, you, what are you going to do from here on?”
“Hee?”
Serena replied in a flabbergasted voice as she looked in Asuka’s direction. To which Askua looked back with her usual drowsy eyes.
“From here on. Can’t you see this is a monster den with you being the sole human?”
“I, I knew it….you’re going to eat me!?”
She shouted in a grievous cry.
“Stripping me of my skin, toying me as a plaything and in the end, I’ll become everyone’s dinner like the dish Carpaccio!?”
“Ah—, yea…. You’ve got quite the imagination there…..”
In contrast to the surprised Asuka, Sak.u.ma’s face turned bright red. She probably imaged that too.
“I did want to drink human blood a while ago but no one here has such hobbies like that. But I’ll pretend no one heard this”
As she said such, Asuka leaned back on the chair and crossed her leg.
“Lastly, its our 〝Demon King’s〟 decision that we’ll turn to. For the time being, we got what we wanted to hear and there’s not much merit in keeping you here at all”
“…………!?”
“Whether it be turning you into Carpaccio or immediately expelling you from here, that’s not what we actually mean. It’s whether you could return home or end up staying here. It’ll be best for you to return home but if you wish for it to stay put here, you’ll probably never return.”
While polis.h.i.+ng her nails, Askua basically implied 『You’ll be useless here』. That hurts Kyosuke’s heart, but well, he’s sure its just her irritation speaking out instead.
Recently, Asuka had been included in making rounds during the labyrinth exploration. With Ryuzaki backed by Sak.u.ma, it would become awkward to disobey so its obvious she’ll slowly become dissatisfied.
Serena, while squeezing her hands, spoke
“I can be useful…..as well. Because you saved my life….”
“Fuuuun. Then, what can you do?”
“Eeh? Um, etto. That’s…….”
“N, now now Akai-chan”
As Asuka bullied the troubled Serena, Sak.u.ma bitterly smiled while reprimanding her.
She probably understands Serena’s true feeling of wanting to return to her birthplace of the East Kingdom. But to do so alone, its probably impossible in such a vast wasteland. There’s the Wilderness Worm in the wasteland and the thing that caused her to be here, the red-winged demon. She probably came to the conclusion after judging her situation, that it’d be best to stay here for a while.
“Serena-san, we’ll talk with our leader. And then we, um, whenever we extend the extent of our activity, during that time we’ll take Serena-san along and I think we can someday send you back…..”
“Y, yes…….! Thank you very much!”
Serena’s face finally became cheerful as she stood up.
“……That girl, though they built walls to thwart the invasion of monsters from this side.”
Akira mumbled unemotionally. Rin and Kyosuke turned in that direction.
“An army of monster going towards that wall to escort a girl, it’s simple if you say it like that but seems unlikely to be that easy….”
“Oh yea, that’s right”
Rin also nodded
Kyosuke also came to the same understanding. He’s sure the other cla.s.smates are also coming to the same conclusion as them too. Probably Serena herself does not realize the true essence of this situation she’s in, as she’s firmly gripping her hand and solidifying her will while shouting
“This incompetence Serena! I’ll work really hard and give it my all!!”
And after that, as Serena actively partic.i.p.ated, a remarkable thing happened. In a bad way.
“T-t-t-t-t-thank you for waitin—Kyaaaaa!”
She came out carrying food, stumbled and tossed the food. Kyosuke doesn’t know how many times have he has seen this spectacle. As he half-heartedly watched this happened.
“Dang…… Serena-chan, just dang…….”
Rin nervously admired while slurping on pseudo pasta. The pseudo pasta was found on the 11th floor as a new ingredient to be harvested. Boiling it produced a spaghetti like flavor and texture. Since its shape and color resembled closely to the original, it became a hit within the cla.s.smates as no one wanted to a.s.sertively argue about its shape. The person who discovered the pseudo pasta, Kagoi(gargoyle), still eats it.
Incidentally, as they fought the Wilderness Worm a couple of days ago, somehow a large amount of pseudo pasta was harvested. Kyosuke guess there’s miracle in this world too. Gofunkawahara muttered『That thing’s a female enough that Kyosuke can hear it but not really understand what he meant. Strange things are strange. By the way, the Wilderness worm are not oviparous but rather they breed by viviparous.
Well, enough about the story of pseudo pasta. The problem is Serena. Like Rin said, Serena is just awful.
She is, while currently lowering her head in apology, gathering the broken plate and cleaning the floor. The student are openly irritated at the waste of food in front of them.
Sak.u.ma conveyed the things from Serena to Ryuzaki and now she’s going with the flow of being placed the cla.s.s. And going with the flow, a.s.signed her an attendance number too. Well, she’s basically a transfer student.
Transfer students, in its entirety, are usually pampered at first. Other worldly citizen. Caucasian features. To sum it up, she’s a beautiful person who’s also a human. Especially among the guys who aggressively and intensely go on the offense.
“Serena-san, this worl—-no, humans, how is their livelihood!?”
“Serena-san, isn’t fighting with only a spear scary?”
“Serena-san, what’s your favorite food? How do you eat the food?”
“Serena-san, where do you live? Or rather what’s your LINE?”
And as the monster surrounded her, she became absolutely afraid.
Then again, she did say she’s a knight apprentice and could be added as a potential battle power but Ryuzaki flooded Kyosuke’s group with request in hope to get her into their team.
But she’s too frail.
“If I remember correctly, Serena-san was seriously injured in the 1st floor fighting against a horned rabbit, to which she was rushed back upstairs right?”
“It’s like another Kyosuke again”
Rin and Akira chatted while Kyosuke smiled bitterly.
By the way, Serena is not the only transfer student. Continuing after student 41 Serena is the Ogre, Zeku, who is also added into the cla.s.s as number 42. Since he can’t speak, he’s always with Ok.u.ma who interprets for him as he is plentiful with his strength.
Well, it can’t be helped if she can’t add to the cla.s.s war potential. She was immediately discharged of being a battle essential member and was rolled into the base essential member.
“She overkilled Kano’s kitchen garden with water, and I heard the tomato roots narrowly went bad”
Akira said
“She also helped Kuremori-kun but the repaired rifle spontaneously discharged and she was driven out, or so I heard”
Rin said
“I heard from Sugiura that she helped by peeling the skin from the potato but peeled only until 3 centimeter of it remained useful”
“Aah— that’s why she’s a waitress”
“But that waitress is like that though…..”
No doubt the cook, Sugiura, is going to fly into rage now. She’s a cheerful girl but she’s not the big-hearted type.
“Uu….. This careless and incompetent Serena, please scold me…..”
Serena placed her hand on the wall as she became crestfallen while slouching.
“With this, Serena is close to entering 〝Team Useless〟…..”
“We’re different, the problem is that she’s really useless”
Akira words, as usual, are as heartless as ever. Kyosuke thought about lecturing him but he seemed to be continuing, so his mouth remained shut.
“I fear that at this rate the cla.s.s mood will change to ostracizing her.”
“Ostracizing? Driving her out?”
“Yea. She’s a human of this world. At first they were curious, that’s a 〝human〟, an existence they desired enough to pamper her. But at any rate they’ll become tired, think of her as a hindrance and remember their irritation of her. That’s where we differ, if we didn’t have cla.s.s with the same cla.s.s, there would have been few resistance in driving us out too”
While listening to his a.s.sumptions, Rin and Kyosuke looked towards Serena’s direction again. She called Sugiura and was pulled into the kitchen, came out with new plate of food and with additional caution to not spill anything. Its good for saying a word of caution, but that was a bit too slow. Better than having food spilt upon.
“And so, the 〝Useless〟 girl is driven out, next would be our turn. She’ll be driven out for wasting food, but for us it’ll be some odd reason along with that line”
“That’s not a good line”
“That’s right. In regards to us and the cla.s.s”
For a moment, if the cla.s.s came to the same consensus and decided to drive out some cla.s.smates, the atmosphere would deteriorate as they wholeheartedly pursue that course. For those who are useless, they’ll be driven out from the cla.s.s. Such action would cause a tug of war, produce false accusations and perhaps the cla.s.s would fall into such a trap. If that happened, even Ryuzaki wouldn’t be able to do anything.
The present state is already a bomb of dissatisfaction. So to speak, Serena
might be the fuse that lights the bomb.
“If we revealed the Full Cross true ident.i.ty, we’ll no longer be called useless”
“That we wouldn’t. Well, I’ll still want to keep it a secret so don’t make such foolish proposal. However, now is also not the best time to do so”
The case of the red-winged demon. This would be the worst timing to reveal the true ident.i.ty.
Useless
That word is starting to feel heavy in Kyosuke’s heart. If he had not met with Rin by chance, they would have always remained useless then. Compared to how Kogane fell, Rin would have fallen that low, or possibly it could have been Kyosuke himself. If that happened, he wouldn’t be here in this cla.s.s about now.
“Surely if I can remember correctly…….”
Finally delivering the pasta successfully, Serena made a triumphant pose and smiled while Kyosuke muttered to himself.
Later that day, Akira’s fear came true. That was quite fast of a prediction.